"It is very different when you age. The things that are significant, or what drives you, or the physical experience of being driven, changes over time."
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Quote collection
Kiki Smith quotes (page 3 of 4)
64 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"In drawing, I often think of things as flying buttresses."
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"You start with a generic body, but I think the first wall you hit with portraiture is comprised of history and storytelling and the nature of characters - whether they are historical or coming from literature or documentation. Those are the references we have to people, besides your family, and the intimacy of portraiture is in the specifics of individuals. For me, it came out of doing things about animals."
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"When you get older, you're running out of time. You care more about trying to stay on the planet a little longer, so you can learn how to draw better!"
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"I'm peripheral in Colab's history because others were involved in media, filmmaking, and music, and I was always a studio artist."
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"I always thought it was a trap to fit into ideologies, and maybe that's a luxury position, but my work is a reflection of my being here. My being here is not a reflection of an idea."
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"Life really changes. And it gets lighter, for the most part. You tolerate yourself and others better."
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"I love flying buttresses!"
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"We as beings are very contradictory, complicated creatures that work in our best interest and against our best interest. In a certain way, I want my work to have all that messiness."
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"I didn't start to be an artist myself until I was 24."
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"Many people don't have relationships to their siblings in adulthood, or they have superficial ones. It's sort of unfashionable, particularly in America, to be close to your family."
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"The miracle of being able to pay attention to other people in your life, and the miracle of being in time, and to continue being in time."
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"When studio art started being seen as important, I joined Colab, and then I became very involved."
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"Now, it is much more difficult for young people coming to New York. But also when you're young, you have more time to interact with one another, to discover yourself with people of your generation."
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"I'm in general a nostalgic person, but I don't know if I'm nostalgic for the 80s!"
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"I had stopped making figures, and then I began making images of animals in nature, which was a way to introduce the figure."
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"Things that are very significant and important to you when constructing an identity when you're younger change."
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"I first had no interest in figuration whatsoever."
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"My support system is simple - people and time. The miracle of other people in your life."
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"I've been very lucky being in New York. While there are many things that have impacted my life, I have been able to stay here and do my own work."
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